Dobson charges Colorado hostile to Christianity

Asks legislature to fix 'biased' state civil-rights commission

James Dobson, the noted Christian psychologist and founder of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, asserts the state of Colorado is running a "biased" Civil Rights Commission that exhibit's hostility to "people of faith."

And he wants lawmakers to fix it.

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Dobson, who has counseled five presidents, written dozens of books and guided Christian families in negotiating the intricate pathways of parenthood, was referencing the state's newest attack on Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips.

"We strongly condemn the decision of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission to allow this new claim of discrimination to move forward," Dobson's statement said. "This is simply a continued attack on the First Amendment and religious freedom.

"We call upon the Colorado legislature to provide unbiased, fair, constitutional due process for all Coloradoans, including people of faith, and to prevent future hostility by this biased government agency."

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The state was scolded by the Supreme Court for its "hostility" toward Christians and toward Phillips for ordering him into a re-indoctrination program when he refused to provide a same-sex wedding cake.

Phillips has said all along he sells products to anyone. But he won't create any message, and the Supreme Court decided 7-2 in his favor.

Dobson, who serves on President Trump's Faith Advisory Board, and has been called by the New York Times "the most influential evangelical leader in the country," described Colorado's actions as a "relentless attack against religious freedom and the First Amendment."

"Even though the 7-2 majority of the U.S. Supreme Court specifically held that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission is forbidden from displaying overt hostility and animus against a person for their faith, today that same Civil Rights Commission allowed a claim of discrimination to move forward again against Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop."

Dobson, who also co-founded the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Family Research Council, two organizations with high profiles in the battle for religious rights and America's Christian heritage, pointed out: "On the very same day the Supreme Court agreed to hear the Masterpiece Cakeshop case in 2017, a Colorado local attorney and LGBT advocate requested from Masterpiece Cakeshop a pink and blue cake celebrating the attorney's transition from male to female. Jack respectfully declined to create the custom cake because the message it expresses would violate his Christian faith.

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"Now, Jack is once again required to defend himself before the Colorado Civil Rights Commission even though the Supreme Court has already ruled in his favor previously. The Supreme Court upheld our constitutionally protected right to religious liberty and to be free from government hostility."

WND requests to the state Department of Regulatory Agencies, which supervises the commission; the commission itself; and the office of Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper did not generate a comment.

Gov. John Hickenlooper

In the latest attack on Phillips, the Civil Rights Division sided with Autumn Scardina, who complained Masterpiece violated state law by insisting it would not "design custom cakes that express ideas or celebrate events at odds with its owner and staff's religious beliefs."

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However, the ruling conflicts with the commission's rulings in several other recent cases in which customers requested custom cakes portraying the Bible's condemnation of homosexuality and the bakers refused.

When complaints of discrimination were filed in those cases, the state concluded that the bakers had a right not to produce something that violated their beliefs.

The Alliance Defending Freedom, which previously represented Phillips, now has sued the state, the division, the governor and others.

"Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that Colorado cannot treat cake artist Jack Phillips differently than others, state officials have continued to do just that in response to a more recent complaint filed against him. Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing Phillips and his cake shop filed a federal lawsuit late Tuesday against those officials for doubling down on their anti-religious hostility," ADF said.

"On June 26, 2017, the same day that the Supreme Court agreed to take up Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, an attorney asked Phillips to create a cake designed pink on the inside and blue on the outside, which the attorney said was to celebrate a gender transition from male to female. Phillips declined the request because the custom cake would have expressed messages about sex and gender identity that conflict with his religious beliefs. Less than a month after the Supreme Court ruled for Phillips in his first case, the state surprised him by finding probable cause to believe that Colorado law requires him to create the requested gender-transition cake," the legal team explained.

"The state of Colorado is ignoring the message of the U.S. Supreme Court by continuing to single out Jack for punishment and to exhibit hostility toward his religious beliefs," said ADF Senior Vice President of U.S. Legal Division Kristen Waggoner. "Even though Jack serves all customers and simply declines to create custom cakes that express messages or celebrate events in violation of his deeply held beliefs, the government is intent on destroying him – something the Supreme Court has already told it not to do. Neither Jack nor any other creative professionals should be targeted by the government for living consistently with their religious beliefs."

Dr. James Dobson

The complaint, in U.S. District Court in Colorado, states: "The Constitution stands as a bulwark against state officials who target people – and seek to ruin their lives – because of the government's anti-religious animus. For over six years now, Colorado has been on a crusade to crush Plaintiff Jack Phillips … because its officials despise what he believes and how he practices his faith. After Phillips defended himself all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and won, he thought Colorado's hostility toward his faith was over. He was wrong. Colorado has renewed its war against him by embarking on another attempt to prosecute him, in direct conflict with the Supreme Court's ruling in his favor. This lawsuit is necessary to stop Colorado’s continuing persecution of Phillips."

The state of Colorado, in the previous case, "admitted that cake artists – including Jack – are free to decline to create custom cakes with a 'specific design" that they will not make for anyone," ADF explained.

"That includes orders for wedding cakes that 'featur[e] a symbol of gay pride,' cakes that contain 'pro-gay designs or inscriptions,' or cakes with images opposing same-sex marriage. Although the state has repeatedly found no probable cause in other cases where cake artists refused to create custom cakes, the state treated Jack differently when he declined a request for an expressive cake celebrating the idea that sex – the status of being male or female – can be chosen and changed and that it is determined by perceptions and feelings," the lawsuit said.

"The arbitrary basis on which the state is applying its law makes clear that its officials are targeting Jack because they despise his religious beliefs and practices," said ADF Senior Counsel Jim Campbell. "Jack shouldn't have to fear government hostility when he opens his shop for business each day. We're asking the court to put a stop to that."

Those accused of continuing the state's harassment of Phillips include Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, Gov. Hickenlooper, Aubrey Elenis of the state commission and commission members Anthony Aragon, Miguel Rene Elias, Carol Fabrizio, Charles Garcia, Rita Lewis and Jessica Pocock.

The state's hostility toward Christianity was displayed, the U.S. Supreme Court said, by "disparag[ing]" Phillips's religion, describing it as "despicable" and, according to the complaint, "enforcing a double standard."

The Supreme Court explained that means a cake artist is free "to decline" to sell cakes with messages the baker would not sell to anyone.

"Colorado applied these principles when William Jack, a man who identifies as Christian, filed discrimination charges against three Colorado cake shops: Azucar Bakery, Le Bakery Sensual and Gateaux, [that] refused his cake requests.

"Jack asked each cake shop to provide quotes for two cakes expressing his religious beliefs against same-sex marriage."

The cake shops refused, on the basis of their owners' beliefs, and the state endorsed that position.

The lawsuit states, yet again, that Phillips "serves all people but will not create cakes that express messages or celebrate events contrary to his religious beliefs."

"Phillips will not create such cakes no matter who requests them."

The state officials were handed a tongue-lashing from the Supreme Court.

"The commission's treatment of Phillips' case … showed elements of a clear and impermissible hostility toward the sincere religious beliefs motivating his objection. As the record shows, some of the commissioners at the commission's formal, public hearings endorsed the view that religious beliefs cannot legitimately be carried into the public sphere or commercial domain, disparaged Phillip's faith as despicable and characterized it as merely rhetorical, and compared his invocation of his sincerely held religious beliefs to defenses of slavery and the Holocaust.

"I would also like to reiterate what we said in the hearing or the last meeting," Rice said during consideration of Phillips' case. "Freedom of religion and religion has been used to justify all kinds of discrimination throughout history, whether it be slavery, whether it be the Holocaust, whether it be – I mean, we – we can list hundreds of situations where freedom of religion has been used to justify discrimination. And to me it is one of the most despicable pieces of rhetoric that people can use to – to use their religion to hurt others."

Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially.